Seeds in the News

Anyone who isn't living on some remote arctic island should have heard about the big news in seed banking this past week - and heck, considering the story, even those confined to desolate arctic islands should have heard about it. The story is that the Global Seed Vault has finally begun accepting donations. Housed in big ol' bunkers on an island that Norway lays claim to up near the North Pole, this seed vault hopes to serve as a backup for the untold number of seed banks which exist world wide. The news itself is likely only exciting to those who like seed banks (cough, cough) but the implications of the creation should interest anyone who eats plant derived foods.

Seed banks are generally created because there is fear that a species or variety of a species is in danger of extinction. Seed banks come in all sizes: some are small collections by private enthusiasts, some are government or non-profit enterprises which hold thousands and thousand of samples. While private collections rarely have enough samples to be preserving those crops which are right on the brink of extinction, they often are the ones keeping heirloom or rare breeds actively grown. Governments and non-profits are where the real genetic gold mines are. Trouble is that of exclusive rights and potential risks. Organizations get to decide who can look in their vaults, and with all of your seeds in one basket, if one of these storehouses goes under, it could mean literally thousands of species going extinct instantaneously. When Baghdad was wrecked, the seed banks there went down with all the chaos. Precious ancient grains were taken from their storage containers and left on the ground to rot during looting. Implication 1: Global Seed Vault; good, proving back up.

Sad matter is that we are in such desperate need of this, and all of our other seed banks. While not quite as glamorous as the extinction of Chinese River Dolphins or kittens, the loss of plants should be noted. Some were damn tasty. Others possess miraculous qualities we can scarcely begin to understand. Many others have yet unrealized resistance to disease or troubles which we may very well need one day. But it will be too late, because everyone wanted to eat boring ol' Fuji apples and russet potatoes and there was no market for a diverse range of crops. Implication 2: Global Seed Vault; saddening in its great need, a sign of the coming apocalypse.

The basic idea of the Global Seed Vault is that everyone to throw in some seeds, we can all share, get some more seeds floating about, and all well be at least a tiny bit better. But, our friends over at GRAIN point out that this supposed savior, is not all the glory we might hope it to be. In fact, as a general rule, organizations will only be able to retrieve their own seed and there will be no storage of duplicates. With early organizations putting in a lion's share of the seed, later joiners will be unable to even place (and in turn, retrieve) seed which is rare - only seed which is completely unique. Implication 3: Global Seed Vault; even saddeninger poor bureaucratic choices may doom your usefulness.

And in the end, seeds don't last forever, even when frozen at twenty below on silly ol' islands. Given a couple of decades, all of these seeds are dead. Seeds need to be kept grown to be kept lively. Implication 4: Global Seed Vault; saddest, ultimately you are doomed by limitations outside of your own control.